About Doug Dandridge

Douglas Kevin Dandridge (Doug Dandridge) writes science fiction and fantasy, striving to make the stories intelligent and original.Doug currently has twenty-three books released on Amazon, and has made over 230,000 sales in five years. His Exodus: Empires at War series has 160,000 sales over thirteen books. Books 3 through 9 all hit either number one or two on Amazon UK in Space Opera and Military Science Fiction, and were in the top five in the same categories on Amazon.US. He has almost fourteen hundred reviews over all his book with a 4.5 star overall average. You can find his Amazon page here, and the sales page for his first Exodus book here.

Doug Dandridge was born in Venice, Florida, on September 12th, 1957, less than a month prior to the launch of Sputnik 1, a true child of the space age. At the time Venice was a retirement community of about five thousand people on the West Coast of Florida, characterized by many of the residents, including the kids, as Paradise. Reared by his parents, General Contractor Theo Edwin Dandridge, and Dressmaker/later Nurse Hazel Angelina Roy Dandridge, Doug experienced a strange combination of being materially spoiled and strictly disciplined. Raised in the Catholic Church, Doug attended Epiphany Catholic School, graduating in eighth grade, and further attended Venice Junior High and High School, graduating in 1975.

Venice was a paradise to grow up in, with miles of sandy beaches and thousands of acres of wilderness land along the Myaka River. Frequent, almost daily excursions to the beach were a part of Doug’s childhood, as were frequent camping trips along the Mosquito infested river. Work with his dad exposed Doug to all aspects of the construction industry. Many summers were spent at Good Counsel Camp in Inverness, which featured long canoe trips, archery, riflery and wilderness camping trips along Central Florida’s lakes and rivers. Most summers were finished by family trips to Long Island and along the Eastern Coast of the United States and into Canada.

Doug started reading at an early age, exploring the works or Wells, Stevenson, Heinlein, Verne, van Vogt and many others from the age of six on. Ignoring children’s works, Doug frequented the adult stacks of the local library. Add to this the superheroes of Marvel and DC, and the tales of horror of Creepy and Eeire, and a truly warped personality was formed. Later discoveries of Burroughs and the worlds of Robert E Howard turned Doug’s mind to a complete fascination with the world of the fantastic. Forbidden Planet, 2001, Lost In Space, Star Trek, the Outer Limits, Shock Theater, Terminus Science Fiction and others reinforced this fascination. To date Doug has sampled over two thousand works of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Historical Fiction, as well as many works of science and history. Trips to Kennedy Space Center and views of Saturn V launches from the roof of the family house in Venice also led to a love of science and speculation about the future. A high school teacher encouraged Doug to consider writing seriously, but life was young and many things beckoned.

Doug received his first rifle at the tender age of nine, an old .22 caliber bolt action. He completed three years of Marine Corps JROTC in high school and went on to a four year tour of duty in the Army. Trained as an infantryman and serving most of his time as a Nuclear Weapons Senior Custodial Agent, Doug fired expert on every occasion with the M16A6 rifle. He was also proficient with every weapon he ever picked up, from the M1911A1 pistol to the Panzerfaust Antitank Rocket Launcher, and was particularly skilled with the M60 machine gun and the German MG1. Doug started training in Martial Arts in grade school, taking a year of Judo, then beginning serious study in high school of Tae Kwon Do. His dad, once an amateur boxer, taught Doug boxing. He later took Ishi Ru, Shodokan, and other forms of Tae Kwon Do, and had recently begun experimenting with the Katana and Cane fighting, realizing that old age is approaching and needs to be fought. Still an avid shooter, Doug frequents the local range several times a year to refamiliarize with his many firearms. Doug finished his military service in the Florida National Guard, where he received training in Microwave Communications and Air Assault.

For many years Doug was a regular motorcycle rider, something he would like to again pursue in the near future. For twenty years he could be found playing in every city league, intramural or pick up volleyball game he could find. He was a regular weight lifter, not even dissuaded by open heart surgery, until a rotator cuff injury side-tracked that activity. He plans to engage in horseback riding, something he has done sparingly in the past, and would love to pursue his dream of parachuting.

Doug attended Florida State University in Tallahassee after his time in the Army. Doug had an on and off academic career, with eleven semesters on the Dean’s List and two expulsions from the University. He majored in Biology, Geology and Psychology at different times in his tenure. He also took course work in German, Spanish, Anthropology, Geography, and two semesters in Army ROTC. Unfortunately he also studied hard at partying at a well know party school, and from there came his troubles with finishing school. He finished strong at FSU, top in his class in Psychology, and was able to choose from seven different universities for Graduate Clinical Psychology. He walked and received his degree in Psychology in 1990, ten years from the time he entered the University.
Choosing the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, mainly because it was close to Tallahassee and his party environs, Doug obtained a Masters Degree in 1994 in Clinical Child Psychology. He also studied Neuropsychology and worked at the Veterans Administration Psychiatric Hospital in Tuscaloosa as a Psychometrist for two years. That was followed by work at several Community Mental Health Centers both in college and out. Unfortunately Doug was asked to leave Alabama before completing his PhD, the result of an argument with several faculty members and attempting to aid another student who had been unjustly punished. He married a local woman and stayed in Alabama for the next seven years, working first in mental health centers as a therapist, then in restaurant management. He first started writing seriously at this time.
Doug’s first work was an expose’ of the abuses of power in academia, focusing on the University of Alabama Psychology Department. It was a work of rage, that still garnered the attention of a well-known agent. It was only rejected when the agent found another work of similar scope just before she received Doug’s manuscript. He then started on his first work of fiction, The Convoy, which will be offered on this site as a free eBook. This was followed by more novels and many short stories. The first agent Doug obtained was a scam artist out for money. This led to a fear of agents, and Doug only submitted to the three publishers that accepted unsolicited manuscripts for many years. Only recently has he again started to submit to agents, along with this foray into internet publishing.
Doug was an original member of Holly Lisle’s Forward Motion Site, an administrator who taught world building and web research on the site. Another break came when the wife of a friend happened to be the ex-girlfriend of science fiction writer Charles Sheffield. This led to several years of email correspondence with the famous writer. Charles encouraged Doug to keep at it, believing that he had the talent to make it in the competitive world of publishing.

After his divorce Doug returned to Tallahassee, where he has worked in a Prison Drug Abuse Program, a Department of Juvenile Justice residential program supervisor, and for the last five years with the Florida Department of Children and Families. Doug reentered school a few years back, which side-tracked the writing for several years, though it was never truly stopped. He studied Anatomy, Nutrition and Chemistry on route to admittance to nursing school, and while the oldest student in his classes was also at the top of every one. Unfortunately health concerns side-tracked nursing school. Now Doug is full time into writing outside of the job that puts food on the table. And even there his mind is constantly on the worlds, settings and characters he develops for his stories
Doug currently lives in Tallahassee with his four cats, spending most of his free time banging away on the keyboard, writing, rewriting and submitting. He finds the writing and rewriting enjoyable, the submitting not so much. Free time pursuits include going to FSU Women’s Soccer and Volleyball Games, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, and of course Football. Tired of playing the numbers game, Doug is continuing to submit to agents while also self-publishing online.

Doug has written in several of the genres of the fantastic, including near and far future science fiction, urban and high fantasy, and alternate history. The Deep Dark Well is a novel of the far future, in which aKuiper Belt Miner from Alabama meets a superman on an enormous station built around a black hole. The Hunger is an Urban Fantasy involving vampires in the mold of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Convoy is a novel set in an alternate World War 2 in which the Kaiser still rules after a German Victory in the first war. He is currently submitting a gunpowder fantasy called The Chronicles of Connor McMennamin to agents, to be followed by a novel, Shadows of the Multiverse, built around string theory and an terrifying race from another dimension. Diamonds in the Sand, another early work concerning nanotech in the near future, will be released as a free eBook on this site. Of major importance is the Refuge series, which has gone through several iterations before the last novel. Concerning the trials of transplanted Earth people into a dimension of archetypes such as elves and dragons, it was planned as a ten to fifteen volume series. Exodus concerns a human empire which fled Earth two thousand years prior, establishing a thousand year empire, which the hated aliens have now found. In science fiction Doug loves playing with Nanotechnology and Black Holes, while in fantasy he prefers to model societies using realistic military and economic models.

Currently Doug has thirty-three books online with more coming soon. The first five books of the Exodus: Empires of War series are also available in audiobook, with book six in production. Ongoing series include Exodus: Empires at War; Empires: Machine War, Exodus: Tales of the Empire; Theocracy and the Refuge techno-fantasy series. He had been published in Anthologies by Worfire Press (Five By Five Three), Fiction River (Tales of the Apocalypse), Chris Kennedy Publishing (A Fistful of Credits), and the Prometheus Project, and has participated in several charity anthologies. He will be involved in future anthologies from John F. Holmes in the Hundred Worlds Universe, and with Charles E Gannon’s Lost Signals of the Terran Republic anthology. Doug has also signed a contract to write two books and develop the Kinshiop War shared universe. The first book is due out by mid 2018, with the second to follow shortly after.

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41 comments on “About Doug Dandridge”

Hi Doug,
My name is Colette Prost Campbell and I am a member of the group I Grew Up in Venice Too, saw your entry about the book “Diamonds In The Sand”, and am interested in your success. My family also moved to Venice in the early 60’s, I attended and graduated from Epiphany Catholic School, Venice Junior High and High School. I am an addiction counselor in private practice and a struggling writer on the side. I have a driving interest in counseling reseach and human services. Would like very much to correspond.
Congratulations on the new book.
Colette

HI I’m a high school student and was wondering wether you were going to write another exodus book. I love the series and even prefer it to star wars because it just seems more realistic in some aspects. This series has a mixture of military history and physics. In which I recently took college physics and history classes.

Book 3 is out on Amazon now, if you haven’t read that one yet. That’s high praise, liking it more than Star Wars. I am a Star Wars fan too, though I don’t think they approach sicif in a realistic manner. I plan to write a bunch more books in the series, and hope to have another out by mid-Fall. Thanks again.

I love the Exodus series and have read the five books out so far, I bought them on Kindle, but after finishing Ranger, I bought the five paper backs, as I still like the feel of a book in the hand. Is the Empire going to find a alien allies that will be a match or better for the hunters? These are one of the best military sci-fi that I have read in quite a while. Keep up the good work.

Actually, Doppleganger was written in my submitting to publisher years, after I had written the first iteration of the series, which was set about the time of Doppleganger. I decided to abandon the whole lots of hcaracter thing for a submission, and Doppleganger was born in 2003. Then I wrote the current books of the new iteration of Refuge. Book 4 will be out for the series later this year.

I have greatly enjoyed the Exodus books and short stories and anxiously await Exodus 8. While waiting, can you recommend any authors who’s might fill the void between your books. I was also wondering if you are considering extending the Deep Dark Well series?

Thank you. I actually have a second trilogy planned for the Deep Dark Well, and even have the rough draft of the first book, Theocracy, finish. The problem right now is time, but it will happen eventually. If you like Fantasy, I might recommend my Refuge series, or some of my stand alone books. What I like reading? John Ringo, Michael Z Williamson, David Weber, Taylor Anderson, Jack Campbell. Older stuff? Larry Niven, Poul Anderson and of course Robert Heinlein. With fantasy I like Jim Butcher and R A Salvatore. In fact, read any of them and you’ll probably see where a part of my style comes from. Chris Nutall also has a really cool space opera series (or is that series?). Have read a couple of the Ark Royal series and enjoyed them thoroughly. Right now I’m rereading David Weber, and even though people say I remind them of him, I’m finding that our styles are quite different.

Hi Doug, I was looking at your books on Amazon, and noticed there are separate listings for the same books for “Doug Dandridge” and “Mr Doug Dandridge.” I wonder if someone has set up to siphon off of you? Just wanted to be sure you know about that, in case it’s not you in both cases.

Actually both are me. I don’t know why, but in a couple of cases I hit the Mr. tab when putting in the name of the author. I do get paid for those books as well, so not to worry, and thanks for looking out for me.

Doug – I appreciate your post on the “Deep Dark Well” and wanted you to know that it was the first one of your books that I read. Since then I have purchased the sequels for the series as well as all the Exodus series and the Machine wars first book. Of all the authors I currently follow (Jay Allan, Saxon Andrew, Andrew Berry, Stephen Bennett, Ryk Brown, Evan Currie, Jack Campbell, etc., etc., etc.) you are my favorite. Keep up the great work.

Hello Doug, first congratulations on such a great series exodus is fantastic and im hooked. I wanted to ask if you would be able to create a small sort of exodus universe ships and vehicles with unit picture and description with armaments and stats, for example there is a fenri battle cruiser against 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers, it would add up better to me if I could see how they were laid out stat wise. Just wondering if you have anything like that cooking. Thanks for the great book

I have not seen any notifications in my email and I am curious how you are doing. I feel your pain regarding the sleep apnea. I nearly lost my job once because I was not sleeping well. The worst part of it was not realizing that I was not sleeping. All I knew was I was tired all of the time. I hope you are doing and feeling better.

Hey. On a CPAP, and while still not great, I am doing much better. Working hard to get the next book out, Volume 11 of Empires at War, and then start on the next book, the third of the Machine War series. Thanks for asking.

Thanks for asking. I have a lot going on right now, and need to knuckle down and start getting things done. Exodus 12 should be out in a couple of weeks (only two months behind schedule). Then I have to finish up on a fantasy that one of the biggest agents in the field is waiting on. Then I will decide what I need to get to next, but Refuge and DDW are both on the list. More blogs coming soon.

Hi Doug – just read your “The Kinship War: My Big Chance, or Where the Rubber Meets to Road” posts. Very happy for you in your success and hope you continue in good health and publishing more works.
God bless – Ramon

Hi can tell us when No 14 of Empires at war is coming out because all of the rest of the rest have been 6 months between each one and it is now 8 months and am waiting holding my breath No 14 thanks Fred